The last 12 months has seen a transformation in the attitude of UK energy companies and large gas users towards Renewable Gas Guarantees of Origin, commonly referred to as green gas certificates. These are earned by biomethane production plants for every megawatt hour of biomethane injected into the national gas grid and can be used to attribute a renewable origin to gas used anywhere in the British gas grid. This means that gas used by businesses can be shown to come from a low carbon source, which has a much lower impact on the climate.
Until recently, the main users of these certificates have been the operators of gas-powered buses in town and cities around the UK. However, over the last year this has changed dramatically as big energy users and UK energy companies have begun to value green gas as a source of low carbon heat. As a result of this the price of UK green gas certificates has doubled and even trebled, and in the absence of any further incentives to build more biomethane plants, this situation is judged unlikely to change.
The Iona Capital biomethane portfolio produces up to 220,000 MWhs of green gas certificates per year and can help large heat users to significantly reduce their carbon footprint in a way which is easily reportable against sustainability criteria and carbon budgets. Iona Capital is also able to provide green gas certificates as part of a fully funded energy service company for businesses with heat and power requirements of between 500kW and 5 MW to certificate low carbon gas for combined heat and power plants and heat networks.
